PADRES: Kemp does it all for the Dodgers

Young outfielder beats Padres with bat, glove and feet

LOS ANGELES -- Was that Matt Kemp or Clark Kent running around
in center field for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night?

The center fielder did everything short of leaping tall
buildings in a single bound, making plays with his glove and bat to
help his team rally for a rousing 8-5 win over the Padres in front
of 54,628 at Dodger Stadium. A late collapse by the Padres' bullpen
also played a key role in the team's eighth loss in 10 games and
overshadowed an efficient start by Josh Geer.

The Padres' record fell to .500 at 11-11.

"Matt Kemp defensively saved four runs," manager Bud Black said.
"Jody (Gerut's) ball in the gap, great closing speed. (Kevin
Kouzmanoff's) looper, he had made a great catch. There's four runs
right there, and offensively he did some damage, too.

"Kemp had a good game."

By the time he stepped to the plate in the bottom of the eighth
inning with the Dodgers ahead 6-5, Kemp had bedeviled the Padres
with his glove and feet. Then he added his bat to mix.

Kemp, a .309 hitter with five homers and 15 RBIs in 22 previous
games against the Padres, ripped a first-pitch fastball from Edward
Mujica into the left-field corner to drive in James Loney. On the
throw home, the speedy Kemp advanced to third base. After scoring
the tying run an inning earlier, he then crossed the plate on Casey
Blake's RBI single to give the Dodgers an 8-5 lead.

The runs were the third and fourth allowed by the Padres'
inexperienced bullpen and further fueled the sellout crowd. An
inning earlier, the Dodgers scored two runs against rookie Luke
Gregerson, who allowed four hits and walked one in one-third of an
inning.

"The people don't matter. You've still got to pitch your game
out there," said Gregerson (0-1). "There's a couple of pitches that
I thought I threw well that they got their bats out there. They hit
'em just as well as I pitched 'em."

Kemp caught 'em even better.

The Padres led 3-1 and were looking for more when Gerut stepped
to the plate with the bases loaded in the second inning. Gerut, who
switched spots atop the Padres' lineup with Brian Giles, drilled
Jeff Weaver's pitch toward the gap in left-center field. But Kemp
appeared almost out of nowhere as he raced far over from center
field to take away a three-run extra-base hit.

Three innings later, Kemp did it again with the Dodgers ahead
4-3. With Gerut on second and two outs, Kouzmanoff appeared to earn
a broken-bat single to left-center. But Kemp again came to the
rescue with a diving catch, after which he pounded the ground in
celebration.

"He's been getting me since spring," Gerut said. "He got me once
on a dive. He got me … he's done that a couple of times."

Of late, few Padres starting pitchers have lasted deep into a
ballgame. After he yielded back-to-back home runs in the third
inning to hand the Dodgers a 4-3 lead, Geer seemed headed for an
early shower as well.

But following the homers by Orlando Hudson and Manny Ramirez,
Geer regained his composure and retired nine in a row and 11 of the
last 12 he faced. Two of those outs came via outstanding plays by
second baseman David Eckstein, who robbed three hits in all, taking
two singles away from Russell Martin and one from Hudson. Geer
credited Eckstein with another save when he came to the mound after
the pitcher yielded consecutive home runs.

"He said he was coming here to give me a breather," said Geer,
who became the first Padres starter to complete six innings since
Chris Young pitched seven on April 22. "To keep the cool and stay
relaxed. … I knew that, too … giving up a home run here and there,
I'm not going to get too freaked out. I'm not going to feel the
pressure at all."

The Padres reapplied pressure in the seventh inning and took a
5-4 lead. Adrian Gonzalez, who earlier extended his hitting streak
to 12, doubled in Gerut and later scored on Kouzmanoff's RBI
groundout.